I have a very good friend Harry who often offers me advice. Fortunately for me, the fact that I don’t want the advice has no impact on whether I will receive it. I have to admit that on those rare occasions when I have been accused of expressing some wisdom, it can often be traced back to conversations years ago with Harry. I always admired his ability to “cut to the chase” and identify what is really important.

For those born into the age of digital watches, it was not too long ago that most watches were completely mechanical with lots of moving parts. Expensive watches were made with high precision and featured exceptional accuracy. Less expensive watches were made to lower tolerances and did not keep time quite as well – every now and then they might need to be slightly adjusted to reflect accurate time. If you really needed to always have the correct time, you would want to have a watch made by the Swiss, since they were world-renowned for their quality. Unfortunately, Swiss watches also commanded a very high price and most people could not afford that luxury. However, most inexpensive watches were still good enough for typical day-to-day use.

Building models is fun and addicting! When building models it is very easy to get so involved that you forget the big picture. This is equally likely to happen when attempting to get some model detail “just right” or fine tuning an animation to make it more life-like. For example, I once modeled a material handling system where I was helping to evaluate and fine-tune several competing designs. After I had completed the model, I found myself spending hours fine-tuning the animation of AGVs unloading onto the processing devices.

So how are Harry’s sage advice, Swiss watches, and modeling related? Quite frequently when Harry would find me working on a model aspect like the one above, a typical conversation went something like this:

Dave: “Arrgh! I can’t get this exactly right.”
Harry: “Are the results correct and validated?”
Dave: “Dead-on.”
Harry: “Can someone look at the animation and understand what is happening?”
Dave: “Yes.”
Harry: “Well Dave, you are not making Swiss watches here…”

This was Harry’s way of bringing me back to focus on what is really important. While everyone wants to have the most realistic model and animation, for the vast majority of projects that level of realism is no more necessary than a Swiss watch. That’s not to imply that shoddy work is acceptable. Shoddy work in never acceptable – every project should be completed at least at the level of detail and quality necessary to meet the project objectives. But even though an extra level of realism is nice, it’s a luxury that most cannot afford. And that is especially true if spending time on the luxuries causes you to neglect the basics.

In fact, you should apply this concept even more broadly. When a project is not going as well as expected, first look closely to see if you or anyone involved is spending valuable time on things that are not absolutely necessary. If so, refocus on your priorities.

I urge you to join me following Harry’s advice: Concentrate on the basics first and leave the “luxuries” for later.